Shooting the Moon
by Leafie
Summary: FlyFF. Set on S4. Vagrant souls will never truly die in battle for as long as they are needed and they will be needed as long as monsters remain. Is this truely for the best?
1. Queen of Hearts

_This just started out as a bit of a drabble, but I've got it now I think and will continue. This is set on s4._

Ignore levels and that, just think along the lines of 'all monsters are roughly the same strength with bangs being better in terms of power, leneyas being faster etc. I don't want any 'why is a psy fighting cardpuppets?' questions.

The simple answer is that Saintmorning is easier to write about than Darkon.

_Flyff not mine and all that disclaimer crap._

Rielle knelt over her companion, then swung her right arm up to the heavens, holy stick grasped tightly in her hand. She placed her left hand onto the psykeeper's face, stroking her friend's cheek gently until she was sure that warmth had returned to the flesh. Dyna coughed violently as her lungs painfully resumed their work. The wound that had 'killed' her, a small but deep cut above her left breast, sealed itself.

It had been like this since they had appeared. Any wound dealt in combat, even a killing one, could be healed either by a blessed assist such as Rielle or a holy place, lodestar or lodelight. They were vagrant souls, not humans. They appeared whenever there was a need for warriors and could not ever really die in battle. They would probably vanish was the land ever free of threat, but the land would never be free of threat.

"I should have been here." Rielle said apologetically, touching the scar gently before it faded as if the cut had never been there. "It's clean, like it was a sword…it wasn't a monster, was it?"

"You'd have just gotten hit too. It would have been more problematic that way." Dyna said, shaking her head and swatting the assist's hand away from her chest. "It was a blade, I think I managed to take a kill he had his eyes on. It's cool."

"He killed you." Rielle said, frowning. "That isn't 'cool'."

"It's not a problem. You healed me, didn't you?" Dyna responded, ruffling the assist's short, dark hair and knocking her headband off.

"…but what…" Rielle said, catching her headband and pausing for a second as she placed it back onto her head. "What if I couldn't? What if I found you dead and there was no way to change that?"

"That wouldn't happen."

"But what if it-"

"If it makes you feel any better, I think I see Rone flying in the direction the guy ran." Dyna said, changing the subject in an attempt to calm the assist. "Let's go watch."

Dyna lifted her wand and shield from where she had died, then her broom. Rielle sat daintily upon her own broom and the two of them followed the jester's board.

Rone was well known as the strongest vagrant soul in the land and as one who never actively hunted monsters. Once anything, monster or vagrant soul, had harmed another, though, it was dead. He looked back at the psykeeper and assist following him and smirked. If this hunt was going to have an audience, he was certainly willing to put on a show.


	2. Jack of Hearts

_Yay! I wrote more!_

Also, fight scene! :3

The first yoyo spun around the flying board, slamming into the middle of it and breaking it cleanly in two. The blade leapt from the board as it broke, dust flying up as he landed. The ground was becoming sandy and the soil dry – they were near the edge of the fantasy desert. The jester, for love of a fair fight, leapt off his own board and let if hover above them.

Further above, in the branches of the great tree in the tableland of silence, the assist and psykeeper sat, watching. Dyna, calm, enjoyed every second she saw her assailant hunted by the pitiless jester. Rielle was significantly less calm, shifting her weight back and forth on the branch of the tree, not taking her hands away from her stick. She hated fighting and unlike Dyna, who spent many a long hour sat happily on the steps of the arena egging on the fighters, she wasn't used to just watching. Every time a weapon moved, her hands twitched.

And the weapons were not still for a second. Rone's bladed yoyos spent very little time in his hands and the blade moved fluidly and without pause. Dyna was surprised, Rone was the best of the best and she had expected the fight to end far earlier. A yoyo spun around the blade's leg, its edges slicing though the straps of him armour. A metal leg-guard fell to the ground silently. Ignoring this, the blade dived under the second yoyo, racing toward the jester faster than either assist of psykeeper had seen _anything_ move and swinging the still-armoured leg under the jester's feet. The jester fell back but caught himself , gripping the bars in the centre of his yoyos tightly as he kicked off the ground into a backflip, catching the blade neatly under the chin with his heel, knocking him backward and removing his mask with the kick. As soon he landed on his feet, he raised both his hands and swung them forward and inward, aiming to hit the hapless blade with both of them at once. Had he hit, the fight would have been over.

He didn't hit, it was a mistake assuming that the blade would stay still. He rolled back and then forward onto his feet, running into the attack and letting the yoyos cross behind him. Rone's eyes widened, he hadn't thought past that attack. He wasn't used to missing. He drew both yoyos back to his hands and leapt back as the blade went into a mad spin, slicing only air with his two swords. The jester tossed one yoyo toward the blade as he slammed one foot down to end the attack prematurely and recovered from the momentum. It snaked around one sword, the edges of it catching the weapon when the jester tugged on the steel wire 'string'. The blade was still recovering as Rone threw his second yoyo, catching the swordsman's hand and forcing him to drop the weapon. Rone pulled both yoyos back, robbing the blade of one of his swords but the blade had already recovered and was running towards him once again, far faster this time. Rone had failed to take into account the effect of lightening the foe's load. Before he could curse himself for being so foolish, the blade was upon him, raising his one remaining sword above his head with one hand and bringing it down with all the force he had in his body. Rone tried to leap back, but the blade extended his free hand, releasing a net. His feet caught in the thing and he fell backward, the sword too close to risk catching himself again. He tossed one yoyo upwards, snaking it around the blade's unprotected throat as best he could in the situation and pulling the string back, hoping for the best and raising his free arm to protect his head as the sword came down.

Rielle was on her feet as soon as she saw blood, skidding down the trunk of the great tree and racing for the edge of the hill. She tried to run down the hillside but slipped and slid down on her arse, catching herself near the bottom and continuing her dash without pause. Dyna followed, altogether more dignified, floating about a foot from the ground.

Rone's head hurt. He had hit it on the ground when he fell. He could feel blood dripping on him and he knew some of it was his. It was the first time in a while. He didn't otherwise notice the sword in his arm until he moved and wished he hadn't, cursing like a sailor under his breath.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled his legs back and kicked the lifeless body of the blade away. The wire string of the yoyo had torn through the blade's windpipe when he pulled it. He was lucky to still _have_ an arm, though. He could hardly move it, that sword had almost hit bone. He gritted his teeth, he was a vagrant soul. It would heal within the hour if he waited it out. Even if it didn't, he could bleed to death and suffer little more than embarrassment. Still, when he saw the assist racing down the hill he was glad. Standing around with a hole in his arm wasn't exactly fun.

"Do you need any help?" She asked timidly. Rone looked at her impatiently, holding out his left arm. The assist nodded politely and held one hand above the cut, spinning her stick in her other as her hands began to glow softly and the skin knitted itself back together. It had been a while since Rone had needed healing, his targets usually were weaker fighters who were bullying a desirable monster away from another – he hadn't even taken one hit in a while and he had forgotten how much the healing spell stung. He made no attempt to hide his discomfort, snarling and wincing. As soon as the spell was done the assist shrunk back and stumbled backward, wide-eyed and frightened. She knew full well that the jester only attacked those who had made a nuisance of themselves by killing others, but that did not mean she would be happy to be on his bad side. Dyna floated down behind her, ignoring blood and corpse and outstretching a hand of congratulations and thanks. The jester wordlessly shook it with his good arm and leapt high into the air, back onto his board. The blade's body dissolved. He was going to be reborn, yes, but not here or anywhere near. He was going to be reborn on the prison island of Kabares, home of thieves and murderers. Half of them had been sent there by the jester they had just watched fight.

"Hey." Dyna said calmly, patting the assist's head in an attempt to release her from her wide-eyed, terrified, frozen state. "Lets go back to Sain. I'll get you cake." She said, laughing and climbing on her broom as the assist brightened up immediately at the prospect of cake.


End file.
